Mary Ann Miller's Page

Hi, Mary Ann,

Glad you could make it! You should go to the New Stuff tab and read Marlene's blog on Ana Ginotti. And I would love to see you post a blog that describes your experience sitting and painting in a cafe. Do people talk to you? etc.

Hi Mary Ann,
I loved your story about pulling into the military installation. We had a similar experience last year. During our trip to Provence, we took a weekend to go to the Rivera. We had booked a hotel outside of St. Paul Vence and were having trouble finding it. Told it was off one of the roads near the roundabout with the firestation we still couldn't find it. We did find the firestation, though. It was located on top of a big hill and several fireman were standing outside. Thinking that if anyone knows where the hotel is, the fireman will, we drove up the hill. They all began to wave us away, but we persevered. When we reached the top they quickly came towards the car looking angry and speaking French, of course, which we didn't understand, but got the meaning. Finally, we made it clear we just wanted directions, they volunteered one of them who spoke a little English and he gave us directions. Each time we drove past the firestation after that we noticed that the gate at the top of the hill was down.
Linda

Thanks for your comments on Monet's garden. It was not crowded when we were there and of course when one sits anywhere in the garden you can sense what Monet must have sensed and felt - it is really an inspirational place, but like you said - should be avoided during the tourist season.

Ciao & G'Doye Mary Ann from "Artybob," who loves your sketches from Nafplio! As we just returned today from a month in Australia & New Zealand (Tauck tours, not Untours), I haven't energy to write more than a quick note, inviting you to visit my Untours Cafe page, which shows some of my own travel sketches. I hope you like them, and will consent to being a new "friend" ! Cheers, Bob Young

Great to hear from you Mary Ann! Yes, I did two new sketches Down Under, and put them on my page as photos --- one of Melbourne, and one of Sydney Harbour. And yes, I did remove the other travel sketches, thinking that Cafe regulars might get sort of tired of seeing the same stuff. However, you can see the sketches along with all my other artwork --- mostly oil paintings -- on this website:

http://homepage.mac.com/boby1/PhotoAlbum1.html

About Spain: we tour-toured Portugal and Spain last year with Odysseys Adventures --- they do a good job, and we're glad to have the "overview." If we ever returned it would be to Andalusia in the very same area where Untours has apartments --- we stayed two nights in Ronda, a lovely town, but there are numerous attractive hilltowns nearby, and all are within an hour or two's drive to the Med coast, so you can have the best of both worlds: small rural towns inland, and crowded beach towns. Also, Gibraltar is not far tho' we did not go that day because we were absolutely flattened with fatigue. We had taken a week-long tour of Portugal before we began the Odysseys tour, in Lisbon. The tour was really great, run by a Lisbon company, Portugal Online. Only 8 on a small Mercedes bus and an amazing, absolutely terrific guide, a young woman from Lisbon. I found it by Googling "Portugal tours," and they have an excellent website.
While we liked the Andalusia area and would be glad to return, we are "pulled" to other areas including Sicily and Budapest-Prague-Vienna. Maybe even Vietnam. And, at some point we will be going to northern Italy to be with two families (and so I can practice my Italian !).
Tough choices! Please keep me informed if / when you put up your own sketches. We're taking the Holland and Alsace Untours in April-May, and I'll probably be doing more . . . All the best and Happy New Year . . . Bob

Hi Mary Ann! I love your paintings and I am so curious about your book! We just started a discussion in the new Book Forum, which might interest you. I'm hoping to get people involved and giving recommendations about what books they love to read when they travel or what books inspired them to travel in the first place. Since you're writing your own book I'm sure you have a lot of thoughts! We'd love to hear them.

I am living and reliving these wonderful adventures through your sketches and journal writings. Can't wait for the book!

Dear Mary Ann,

We just received a copy from Untours of "Travels with a Blue Vase."  Jane and I love your work.  Are your paintings available for purchase, either as originals or as prints?  We would really enjoy having some of your paintings in our home.  They are so evocative of many of the Untours locations we have visited, and they are so pretty.

Phil King at pandjking@sbcglobal.net

Spring Lake, MI